Country music’s finest gathered at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Wednesday evening (Aug. 24) for the 15th annual ACM Honors, which recognizes country music trailblazers, current superstars and those who work in writing rooms, studios and within the industry to further elevate artists’ careers. Reigning ACM female artist of the year Carly Pearce hosted for a second year, in addition to turning in one of the evening’s most heartfelt moments with her performance of “What He Didn’t Do.”
Reigning ACM entertainer of the year Miranda Lambert was honored with the ACM triple crown award, which only seven other artists have received to date. Brooks & Dunn performed Lambert’s 2006 hit “Kerosene” in her honor.
“I came to my first ACM Awards in 2005 and won my first ACM new female in 2006 and it’s 2022, that seems crazy to me,” Lambert told the crowd in accepting her honor. She thanked several members of her team, including her longtime manager Marion Kraft, whom Lambert said “is like my second mom and calls me on my s–t.” Lambert also noted that throughout her storied career, which includes 37 ACM Awards wins to her credit, she is always learning. “I came to Nashville when I was 15 to watch Fan Fair at the fairgrounds…I came to observe and to learn and I’m still doing that.”
She added, “At 19, I was trying to set everything on fire and firing my pistols on all cylinders, and now I see the girls my age bringing their daughters to my show and I hope we continue that for years to come, because this stage is what it was all built on, this building and this town and this industry. Thank y’all for loving country music.”
Shania Twain was honored for her songwriting with the ACM poet’s award. Twain’s signature writing style and pop-country amalgam fueled her success, making Twain the first artist ever to release three consecutive diamond-certified albums. She has earned three ACM Awards during her career, including a win for ACM entertainer of the year in 1999. Twain is a writer on the bulk of her numerous hits, including “Any Man of Mine,” “From This Moment On,” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much.”
During her nearly 10-minute speech, Twain discussed her career and the unique challenges of being a songwriter.
“The unique challenge in songwriting really is in the world of storytelling is the amount of time you have to tell a complete story,” she said. “There was a French philosopher Blaise Pascal who said, ‘If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.’ And every songwriter, being able to tell a story and express emotions and feelings in a poetic way in three minutes? It takes much more time. But the hardest part is signing it away and sharing it with the world and that is what our industry and all the teams around us make happen for all of us songwriters.”
She also spoke of looking up to fellow singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. “I believed Dolly Parton when she sang about ‘Coat of Many Colors,’ she was talking about her life. That meant something to me and I wanted to write those kinds of songs.”
Tiera Kennedy offered a smooth rendering of Twain’s “From This Moment On,” while Twain’s fellow Canadian and singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne turned in a spot-on rendition of Twain’s “No One Needs to Know.”
“You should have gone into country music,” Twain told Lavigne.
Kelsea Ballerini launched the show with with a thoroughly electrifying take on Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!,” donning a short dress, top hat and cape in tribute to Twain’s outfit in the original video for the song. Six dancers, clad in black pants and open white shirts, took over the stage behind Ballerini, dancing, twirling and making for one of the evening’s most show-stopping moments. But that wasn’t the only nod Ballerini gave to Twain. Prior to the show, Ballerini walked the red carpet in Twain’s 1999 Grammys dress.
Arguably the loudest crowd cheers of the evening came as Morgan Wallen was honored with the Milestone Award, which celebrates a country artist, duo/group, or industry leader who had specific, outstanding achievement in country music during the past year. Wallen’s album Dangerous: The Double Album landed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for 10 weeks following its release. The album was also recognized as the country album with the most weeks (60) in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 all-genre chart, and the most weeks (59) at No. 1 on the top country albums chart, to date. Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album was also honored as ACM album of the year in March 2022 at the 57th annual ACM Awards ceremony
Wallen’s frequent collaborators HARDY and Ernest performed “Sand in My Boots,” “Wasted on You” and “More Than My Hometown” in honor of Wallen. Then, surprise guest Eric Church made an appearance to present Wallen with the award.
“It has been one of the honors of my career and life to get to know Morgan over the last couple of years, whether that has been on a golf cart, a fishing boat, or over guitars,” Church told the crowd. “I’ve seen him go through some things. I’ve seen him mature as an artist, I’ve seen him mature as a man. I can tell you this: We are very lucky to have him in country music.”
Wallen took the stage to mighty cheers from fans in the crowd, telling them, “I had a whole speech that I had typed up before I knew that any of this was going on. My first concert I ever went to was an Eric Church concert at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. It seemed to me like I could feel what he was feeling when he was singing.” He was interrupted by a fan screaming out “I love you!,” to which he gave an aw-shucks shrug and said “I love you, too,” launching off another round of screams from fans in the room. “It changed my life so for you to be up here presenting this to me now, is more special than I can put into words. I get to do this in front of my parents who are here tonight. Thank you guys for always supporting me and thank you to everybody who is on my team–my songwriting friends, HARDY and Ern…we’ve known each other a long time now and we’ve written 100 songs together.
“Me and God, we’ve had some interesting do-si-do’s I guess you could say,” he added. “That was not in my speech originally. But, I really am grateful for the opportunities. Thank you to my band, I really am grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me and for those who have made it possible. It’s been an incredible year. Awards are awesome, but my true measure of success is my fans [who] I get to see every single night out on the road. Thank you guys for supporting me.”
Other award honorees were ACM icon award recipient Connie Bradley (the late Nashville executive who previously led ASCAP for three decades), ACM lifting lives award recipients Paul Barnabee and Dwight Wiles, ACM service award recipient Duane Clark, ACM spirit award recipient Chris Stapleton, ACM poet’s award winner Sonny Throckmorton (known for penning songs including Merle Haggard’s “The Way I Am” and George Strait’s “The Cowboy Rides Away”), ACM film award recipient Yellowstone, and ACM songwriter of the year HARDY.
Onstage, holding his newly-acquired songwriter of the year trophy, HARDY offered keen advice to aspiring songwriters in the crowd.
“I want to tell you: Never quit. Don’t have a plan B, just do it until it happens, and here’s why,” he said. Turning to Throckmorton, he said, “In 2015, I met you in Flora-Bama. I didn’t have a pot to pi– in. I was playing a songwriter round with a tip jar on the front of the stage. Sonny was the coolest guy ever and thought we were awesome. Nobody playing on that stage that night had a hit, we were just playing original songs. One person wrote ‘Quit’ on a napkin and put it in that tip jar.” Holding up his trophy, he said, “Tonight, that ‘Quit’ napkin will be sitting right beside this motherf—er.”
Other beguiling performances throughout the evening included Little Big Town‘s rendering of Lambert’s “The House That Built Me,” Dan+Shay‘s “Glad You Exist,” Wallen’s performance of HARDY’s “A Rock,” and Vince Gill honoring Chris Stapleton with a rendition of a song the two had co-written but never recorded, titled “You Don’t Want to Love a Man Like Me.” Wynonna returned to the Ryman stage for the first time since the memorial for her mother and The Judds partner, the late Naomi Judd. Wy put on a master class in performing with her poignant rendering of The Judds’ 1984 ACM song of the year-winning “Why Not Me” in honor of songwriter Throckmorton.
The ceremony also feted industry awards winners including Choctaw Casino & Resort (casino of the year-theatre), Mohegan Sun Arena (casino of the year-arena), Windy City Smokeout Festival (festival of the year), San Antonio Rodeo (fair/rodeo of the year), Basement East (club of the year), Ryman Auditorium (theater of the year), Red Rocks Amphitheatre (outdoor venue of the year), Bridgestone Arena (arena of the year), Variety Attractions’ Todd Boltin (Don Romeo talent buyer of the year), and Live Nation’s Brian O’Connell (who took home his 10th promoter of the year win).
Studio Recording Awards winners were Jimmie Lee Sloas (bass player of the year), Evan Hutchings (drummer of the year), Charlie Worsham (acoustic guitar player of the year), Tom Bukovac (electric guitar player of the year), David Dorn (piano/keyboards player of the year), Paul Franklin (specialty instrument(s) player of the year), Jim Cooley (audio engineer of the year) and Dann Huff (producer of the year).
The ACM Honors will air Tuesday, Sept. 13 on FOX.
